Education Archives

Teaching the 1964 New York City School Boycott

Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez. Rethinking Schools.
This lesson and accompanying article teach about the largest civil rights protest of the 1960s was in New York City, when hundreds of thousands of students stayed home to protest school segregation.

Teaching Activity by Adam Sanchez

Rethinking Teaching About the USPHS Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee: A Revision that Centers Resistance

Teaching Activity. By Gretchen Kraig-Turner. 2024. Rethinking Schools.
A high school science teacher revises her lesson on the USPHS Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee to center resistance.

Feb. 3, 1964: New York City School Children Boycott School

More than 450,000 New York City school children boycotted school as part of a protest for quality schools for Black and Latino students.

March 19, 1968: Howard University Protest

Howard University students seized the Administration Building, demanding changes in the discipline policy, the addition of courses in African American history, and more.

Legalize Black Education: The Long Fight for the Right to Learn

Teaching Activity. By Jesse Hagopian. 2025. 40 pages.
This lesson explores major examples of laws passed to suppress Black education in the wake of major victories for the Black Freedom Struggle, highlighting the historical context and motivations behind these legislative efforts.

Teaching Activity by Jesse Hagopian

The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement

Book — Non-fiction. By Teri Kanefield. 2014. 56 pages.
Illustrated book of a teenager who led a student walk out to protest substandard conditions at a Virginia high school in 1951.

Feb. 24, 1969: Tinker v. Des Moines Case Wins Free Speech Rights for Students

The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Tinker v. Des Moines that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

Blackboard Unions: The AFT and the NEA, 1900-1980

Book — Non-fiction. By Marjorie Murphy. 1992. 304 pages.
The history of unionization of teachers.

Pacific Northwest Labor and Civil Rights Projects

Digital collection. Features 11 projects on labor and civil rights movements in the Pacific Northwest with oral histories, primary documents, and more.

Gaby Lemieux testifying before the school board.

Teachers vs. Climate Change: The Story of Teachers’ Work for Climate Justice in Portland, Oregon

Article. By Bill Bigelow.
The story of how teachers, parents, and students in Portland, Oregon organized to demand that climate change be taught honestly and to pass a climate justice resolution.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Citizenship Schools: They Say I’m Your Teacher

Film. Directed by Lucy Massie Phenix and Catherine Murphy. 2019. 9 minutes.
Documentary about Citizenship Schools.

Jan. 1, 1862: Parkersburg Colored School Founded

The first free school south of the Mason-Dixon Line was established in Parkersburg, West Virginia, during the Civil War.

Teach Truth Prep Session

At this Teach Truth Prep Session, participants will hear from the growing chorus of diverse voices speaking out to defend students’ freedom to learn and educators’ freedom to teach.

Undaunted By the Fight: Spelman College and the Civil Rights Movement, 1957-1967

Book — Non-fiction. By Harry G. Lefever. 2005. 304 pages.
The story of Spelman College students and faculty engagement in the Civil Rights Movement from 1957 to 1967.

Learning for Justice

Website. Films, journal, and readings for teachers on education for equity.

May 2, 1963: Children of Birmingham Fill the Jails

In disciplined groups and singing freedom songs, students “ditch” class to march for justice and fill the jails.

In the News: People’s History Teachers

Check out three stories about teachers who teach outside the textbook and organize to defend the right to teach people’s history.

Dec. 8, 1936: Gibbs v. Broome Leads to Pay Equity for Black Teachers

In an attempt to gain pay equity for Black teachers in Maryland, William B. Gibbs Jr. became the lead plaintiff in the NAACP’s case for pay equity in Montgomery County, a case known as Gibbs v. Broome.

“Beyond Loyalists and Patriots” Curriculum Workshop

Explore the varied impact of the American Revolution on voices often stifled or erased from its commemorations in this workshop facilitated by Zinn Education Project program manager Mimi Eisen and Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian.

Media Workshop: Defend the Freedom to Learn

Join us for a Media Workshop on Thursday, May 21, 2026. This is a…

Educating in Dangerous Times: A Call to Reenvision Public School in America

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by George Theoharis and John Rogers. 2026. 304 pages.
A compilation of leading education scholars on reenvisioning and creating equitable, inclusive, and democratic public schools.

Reading the World: Paulo Freire in Angicos

Film. Directed by Catherine Murphy and Iris de Oliveira. 2025. 70 minutes.
Tells the story of an experimental adult education project in Northeastern Brazil led by Paulo Freire that enabled hundreds of rural people to read, write, and begin to vote.

Jan. 8, 1969: Occupation of Ford Hall at Brandeis University

Black students at Brandeis University occupied Ford Hall for 11 days and successfully negotiated the creation of one of the first academic departments of African and African-American Studies in the nation.

Youth in the Movements: High School Student Activism in Twentieth-Century America

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Dara Walker, Alexander D. Hyres, and Jon N. Hale. 2026. 266 pages.
Documents the history of the rise of high school and youth activism in the United States since the Second World War.

Jan. 1, 1994: Zapatista Uprising

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) began an armed uprising in southeast Mexico to protest the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), sparking a worldwide anti-globalization struggle against neoliberalism.

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